Suspect 'surprised' by effect of net virus

[Nambe]

BBC World Edition

Neighbours and friends of

Parson reportedly asked for help with a hacking programme
Jeffrey Lee Parson - charged with spreading an internet virus - have described him as a quiet and lonely youth who may not have known what he was getting into.

"I can't see him intending to do anything wrong," Kathy Noor, a neighbour of the 18-year-old from the state of Minnesota told the local press.

Nina Bauernfield, a friend of the 18-year-old, said he had told her weeks ago that he had planted a variant of the so-called MSBlast worm, which infected hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide and causing them to crash. ---

If found guilty, Jeffrey Parson faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Swallow thy arrogant words, oh Pentagon!
Beware the brave Backlash
Of shock and awe
The fear laden memories of the dreaded Shaw
Once shielded by thy merciless sword.

Before lie the multitudes..Vengeful allies of the Dead.
At thine heal, the patient bearers of Truth and Justice
Seek thy head.

[opihimoimoi]

1. Ten years??? Should be death by fucking flogging

SOB cost me $245 to fix my puter. assholes like him should strung up and left dangling for 85576879 weeks

[Generic Other]

2. And if a goofy adolescent can wreak this much damage

one wonders what a true expert could do? Seems like the internet is very vulnerable.

[ender]

10. a true expert...

leaves no trail :-)

i feel bad for this kid, actually... played a little bit with the dark side, and let it out of his "lab" environment...

and it always seems thats what we catch... some kid who goof'd up.

the really good ones, well, you'll never know that they are on your compuetr.

[Cronus Protagonist]

3. Hmmmm for costing you $245 you want him to die by flogging?

How liberal of you (NOT!).

I suppose you'll point to the millions of computers that were infected and lay that on him, but really, if you want to look at it a little more objectively, shouldn't you have taken the responsible action and patched your computer when the news came out, long, long before the worm could have infected your computer?

(I presume you were just pissed off and didn't mean it)


UnFair & unBalanced Buttons? — The Cronus Connection

[ET Awful]

5. How exactly . . .

did it cost you $245 to remove a simple executeable file using a utility that was a free download from any anti-virus site in the world?

[TahitiNut]

21. Indeed. And a 'worm' that can only infect a computer ...

... when the user/owner/operator has enable it by running it, and by not using up-to-date antivirus software so abundantly available. I have very little tolerance for such skript-kiddies or krackers and believe a jail sentence of from 1 to 10 years, depending on demonstrably conscious intent, is appropriate.

At the same time, where're Skilling and Lay? :eyes:

[Cocoa]

45. that's not like you opi!

[Occulus]

46. ya got ripped off.

What did you do, replace your motherboard and your hrd drive?

Why didn't you go to a library and print out instructions and get data to fix it, and buy a reference manual if need be? Woulda been one hell of a lot cheaper...

gawd. These are machines which require protection. Buy a router, don't use Outlook, get a good virus scanner and be thyself unhacked. :)

[frustrated_lefty]

4. Parson is a stupid, stupid kid.

I think there is a time when kids should be penalized as adults, but the line for me is when they physically hurt other people. You could argue he "physically hurt" you by forcing you to perform labor to recover from the financial damage you suffered. I don't want to demean that, being hit for a few hundred dollars can hurt badly when you're supporting a family.

But, in my book, if a kid commits murder, rape, or violence, they should be charged as adults. Attacking a computer...I don't think children have a firm grasp on how they affect others with things like worms.

Hell, I don't think the kid should be constrained from computer access. I think he should be forced to devote a few thousand hours to community service. Since he seemed to specifically target Microsoft, devote the first thousand to helping Microsoft beef up its security. Devote the next thousand to going house to house helping people make their home computers safe. Make him work at data retrieval for people affected by his worm.

Kids, by their nature, do not understand consequences. I don't want some kid to go to jail where he's likely to be sodomized for frying my hard-drive. I want him to get a sharp dose of reality and realize his little games are affecting real people who he could be helping for a paycheck and have them grateful for the help.

[TahitiNut]

22. 18 isn't a 'kid'.

:shrug:

[teknomanzer]

31. I disagree...

at 18 a person can still be mentally very immature.

[demdave]

50. The exception doesn't make the rule.

We, as a country, have chosen to make 18 the age that you are an adult. We did this because there had to be an age and 18 seemed to be old enough. By this point you are almost finished with your secondary education and you have ridden out the irrational wave of puberty.

While there is still much wisdom to gain after 18, it is generally accepted that you are an adult.

[Rowdyboy]

6. I beg to disagree...

His sexual adventures in prison are none of my concern. If I stupidly leave my back door unlocked, that does not give you the right to enter my house and steal from me. It was a minor inconvenience for me, but MANY people who make their living off the internet literally had food taken out of their children's mouths because of this freak. Do the crime, pay the time-but first increase the penalties. The sonovabitch cost me $53 and kept me off the net for two weeks.

Its called personal responsibility. That concept seems to be one that most parents today ignore but it remains one their "kids" need to understand.

BTW, a 19 year old isn't a kid. He's an adult and should pay adult penalties.

[joshcryer]

7. Maybe you should use a more secure operating system?

Just a thought.

[Occulus]

52. Or at least other software

for email and browsing. Think I mentioned that, but I can't stress enough the importance of doing so.

[frustrated_lefty]

9. Personal responsibility is a good thing and

I agree, it is something we should work harder to instill in our children.

As to whether or not an 18/19 year old is an adult....an adult, in my book, is a person who works for their own paycheck and pays their own bills. At this point in time, I know of no 18 to 19 year olds who accomplish that feat.

It's hard to appreciate the value of a dollar until you work to earn it.

If you want, you can easily tear my stance to hell. I do agree with you, kids should learn something about personal responsibility. I just question whether throwing an 18 or 19 year old in jail is the best way to do that.

[Heddi]

38. you don't know any 18 or 19 year olds

who work and pay bills?

not to be offensive, but what planet are you living on?

Hell--most of my friends did NOT go to college after High School, had jobs from the time they were 16 and were out of their parent's house at 17 or 18......

Have you been to a college? Not every kid gets by on Mom & Dad's money---most of them *gasp* work, live on their own or with roommates, and *gasp* pay the bills.

He's not 14, or 15---he's 18 or 19. He is an adult. He can vote, he can drive, he can die for his country. He can rent a motel room, he can invest in stocks. His parents are not legally responsible for him at this age--HE is responsible for himself and his actions......

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

51. Nothing whatsoever to do with the subject but...

He's not 14, or 15---he's 18 or 19. He is an adult. He can vote, he can drive, he can die for his country. He can rent a motel room, he can invest in stocks.

And yet he cannot drink beer. Crazy huh? Me and wife, Brazilian citizens and residents that we are, plan to take our daughters to dinner and toast with a good, expensive (and French, ça va sans dire) wine the day each of them turns 18.

Unless you guys have straightened out somewhat by then. In which case we may consider some fine California wine. :evilgrin:

[ender]

11. good god...

the kid didnt know what teh fuck he was doing.

what he did was the equivalent of digital graffiti. annoying, but not worth 10 years of a federal pound me in the ass prison.

listen - this guy is peanuts - the big fish, you will never know about.

[Muddleoftheroad]

17. Sorry

But we need to enforce the rules on this kid and ALL others who play with computer fire. No more walks in the park for any of them. If they are acting like adults and doing harm, then charge them like adults and lock them up for a couple decades.

Also, each and every one of them should get sued and lose everything in civil court.

Hackers are a bunch of scum that have troubled society too long already. We realize that they are a problem, now we need to deal with it.

I am sick to death of the computer gods here who want to blame the victim. Sorry, not everyone is as computer savvy as you. The rest of us rely on the rules of society to protect us.

[joshcryer]

20. Tsk, typical response coming from you.

You think that hex editing something you're too stupid to write yourself should put someone in prison forever.

No digital crimes where nothing was stolen (and look at the word stolen, and read the word stolen, and understand the word stolen, because a lot of people who talk about digital data don't know what the word means) should have large sentences.

Dealing with hackers and spammers and other internet miscrients require writing protocols and designing safe systems. Stop using programming language that even have buffer exploits, for example.

[Muddleoftheroad]

23. Nice level of maturity there

Because I disagree with you, I must be "stupid." You must be fun at parties.

What he did was MASSIVE destruction of property. Suppose he set off a bomb and blew up a building with no one in it. Would you still let him off? Because that's what he did. He set off a bomb in our computer network. Oh, and btw, I wasn't infected either.

I agree we need to build safer networks, but also know that won't stop morons from trying to screw them up. Such morons are like the Visigoths of old and would destroy civilization. They can't be allowed to do so.

[chenGOD]

28. Actually he didn't call you stupid....

he called the "1337 h@x05" stupid.

"hex editing something you're too stupid to write yourself"; as in editing a piece of software that the hacker is too stupid to write himself.

[joshcryer]

39. This is more akin...

...to some kids getting a hold of fireworks and adding gasoline or something to them, then lighting them. It's not very wise. The kid was so stupid he used his personal domain to load up the payloads. It was so unbelievably stupid.

The real culprits won't get caught, because they're not stupid. Hell, I'm not a virus writer and I know how to do stuff without being caught. Several proxy layers is all the kid needed. But, c'mon, locking up a stupid kid is achiving nothing. Note that no where did I suggest that he doesn't deserve to be punished, but come the fuck on. Hard prison time isn't a worthy punishment.

And you're wrong that safer networks won't stop the kiddies. The fact that 99% of all problems are buffer overflows and poorly designed software proves this. Look at software like Apache, very little exploits in the decade or so that it's been around (all exploits which were patched very quickly).

BTW, as the other poster pointed out, I wasn't calling you stupid. Although you might be if you think stupid people deserve hard jail time, for simply being stupid.

This kid is a pawn. The news will go on and on about how he's the evil worm writer (when in reality, he's not), and everyone will consider him the fall guy and look past the problems in common computer security.

The solution to all of this crap is code written without buffer overflows and auto execution of attachments in email. Simple. So freaking simple.

[Cocoa]

44. you were wrong about him calling you stupid

you misread him.

Maybe you've misread the hacker too?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

30. Roolz is roolz

But we need to enforce the rules on this kid and ALL others who play with computer fire.

I think very few people disagree with that. What many of us do disagree with is what the rules should be.

Someone here said the boy should serve a hefty amount of community service directed to fix the mess he made. At Symantec, at Microsoft, fixing government machines, whatever. Working without pay for a year or so. That would be appropriate punishment and, unlike jail, it would actually benefit the victims.

If you think we need to throw this kind of offenders in jail, please explain us why you think so.

[Occulus]

49. um

"The sonovabitch cost me $53 and kept me off the net for two weeks."

I fixed mine myself in one day. You have to read instructions. If you don't want this to happen again, don't use software with known and unresolved security issues. Micro$oft products are the target. While I'll not suggest you use linux, you really ought to use something other than MS for email and web browsing.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

53. Cue the Open Source Evangelist

Mozilla (http://www.mozilla.org/) is great for browsing and e-mail, works just peachy under Windows as well as under Linux, has a lot of niceties (tabbed browsing, popup filtering, spam filtering etc.) and is a HELL of a lot less insecure than IE or Outlook (Express or not).

I'm posting from Mozilla 1.4 under WIndows 2000, BTW.

[chenGOD]

55. I second Firebird....

I love the browser. Don't need the suite though.

But tabbed browsing is the ONLY way to browse.

:)

[osaMABUSh]

8. Anybody else getting tons of Sobig Virus emails?

I'm getting bombarded with the w32.sobig virus in my emails. I get approx 200 emails a day of which 180 are bogus emails with the w32.sobig virus.

My Norton Internet Security software catches these and has me manually go through the quarantine process.

Is there any way an ISP can block these at the server level?

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/[e-mail]

[TahitiNut]

24. Yes.

Get an independent email service provider. Don't tie your email address to your ISP. :shrug: Even Yahoo! offers virus filtering.

[sam sarrha]

12. he had a computer, he knew what it would do. I was a juvenile parole

officer for 2 years. I was amazed at the Horrible mindless hurtful things my 'clients' did to people and thought was really F'n funny. they would leave us no way, over many years, to communicate the serious nature of the crimes and they were eventually certified as adults and sent to adult prison... then they got serious about wanting to do the right thing...when the cuff's were on. I got really amazing results with teaching them meditation. Art, learning to play a musical instrument, repetitious exercise and meditation developes the corpus callosum which connects the digital and analogical functions of the mind, and creates a problem solving system. I believe that their basic problem, along with the NEOCON's, republicans, Limbaugh, savage..the tool they use to divide and conquer us is "Apriori Logic", the conclusion comes first and the premise follows.. and always comes up with the same conclusion. I wrote a paper, "Apriori and Inductive Logic as Perceptual Dysfunction and a Stalemate in the Counseling Process". in 88 it wasn't very well accepted. actually I see the process as a mental illness. It causes much unhappiness and suffering to the person and all those they interact with. The result is solving problems with bigger problems, and escalating hostility and violence do the frustration Apriori logic causes the user.. for they can only see others as the cause of their problems...bigotry, racism, domestic violence, 'murder' as an attempt to resolve an unresolvable problem. Fetal alcohol syndrome can result in an inability for a person to understand the consequences of their actions, on Indian reservations where there was really tragic alcohol problems..young people with FAS would walk in front of trucks.. I worked for an Inter Tribal Judge, there were frequently very sad situations like that. Situations that can be easily prevented.. and result in death, suffering and a lot of people needlessly in jail.

[sendero]

13. I agree....

... he's probably just a stupid punk that didn't realize what he was getting into, but he had to know that what he was doing was a crime, whether it infected 10 or 1,000,000 computers.

I feel sympathy of a sort but I think he has to go to jail for a while. His actions were not "benign" and while I agree he is not a "big fish", if we don't punish the fish we catch they big ones truly have nothing to fear.

[conservdem]

14. Good point deseo

"if we don't punish the fish we catch they big ones truly have nothing to fear"

I agree this hacker should get some serious time. Eight years would be a good deterrent.

[sam sarrha]

15. he should get the absolute Maximum they could pile up on him, every

charge for every individual computer possible, then give him parole with the stipulation he can't use a computer or he goes back to finish the total time. Kids need understand that this isn't funny, this is a very serious national security threat, not just a joke, people can die. if he had infected a hospital computer and/or created a situation where someone died.. its Murder. Do these idiots need a license to operate a computer?:freak:

[teknomanzer]

34. Interesting...

Did you know that the average sentence for a rapist is 10 years? Funny how the punishment for property damage is almost the equivalent (and in some cases greater) of crimes against persons. And lets not forget that if you have good lawyers and connections, it doesn't matter how many lives you have financially ruined you can still get off scott free.

Should the kid be punished for his irresponsible act? Yes, definitely. Should that punishment be on par with assaulting a person? I think not. But, hey thats just MY crazy opinion. We do live in a society that obviously values property more than life and the quality of life.

[sam sarrha]

66. destructive power trips are like a drug, they need bigger and bigger

fixes... so what happens when they do something, that directly or causes an accident that kills some one. I suspect that there is more to this kid, I used to do initial home evaluations on some of those really nice kids that ended up being really likeable... but definitely had antisocial personality disorder and were only going to get worse. like one poor suffering SOB committed his first sexual assault at age 5 and through numerous escalating assaults by 11 had committed a vicious rape, with a knife, of a 6 year old girl. no doubt this mentally ill boy, by all standards except legally, would grow up to become a serial killer. The problem is that the Pharmaceutical corporation's want to treat with chemicals that dont cure, but just charge rent on your condition. the Mental health profession is at present not supported by insurance for one reason because they dont do that good a job for the money, and refuse to look at long standing traditions that have better results. it is called the 'Blind Eye of Science' refusing to recognize something that works because it would cause disfavor with the funding people and they would lose their grants.

[BuckeFushe]

16. Eventually, some firm will hire this bum as head of network security

Matters not that he's an asshole for unleashing this on the world. And for those of you who smuggly sit there and say "why didn't you patch, yada, yada, yada", next time your car breaks down, ask yourself if you are competent enough to fix it yourself, or ask why you didn't take it in for a "physical" by your mechanic. Computers have become APPLIANCES, and not everyone is MCSE or a certified tech. And speaking of "other" operating systems, make Linux user friendly and maybe then it will gain acceptance. Otherwise, just shut up.

[chenGOD]

18. Man I dunno about that....

I am certainly no computer tech or MCSE, but I didn't get affected. I patched the system, using the auto update. It's pretty easy to use that auto-update. I mean it pops up a little message saying you should look at this patch and decide whether or not you want to download it, and if you click yes, it's pretty much just click through.

My neighbour's computer got infected, and I did a little searching on the net, and it took me about 45 minutes to fix it. Again I'm no computer tech, hell I didn't even go to university, but this is just a matter of common sense really.

Of course what the guy did was wrong, but instead of throwing him in jail where he will end up being some guys' bitch, and learning different ways to run scams, maybe some counseling, no use of a computer for 2 years, and community service might be in order?

[Muddleoftheroad]

19. Poster child

No, his case will be watched by thousands of wanne-be hackers. No leniency for him.

[TahitiNut]

25. So ...

... you think it's OK to treat people as a means rather than an end in themselves. :eyes:

[Muddleoftheroad]

26. I am merely saying don't cut him a special break

He doesn't deserve it. And in so doing you will encourage others toward the same criminal path.

[chenGOD]

27. That's right, it shouldn't be a special break.....

This shouldn't be a special break, it should be standard treatment for this type of incident. Trust me, 2 years without a computer will be punishment enough for him. You get him some counseling so you can see what this kind of activity actually does to society. Community service as a form of punishment.

[joshcryer]

41. Heh, 2 years without a computer for that guy...

...would be like an eternity. It would straighten him up so quick it wouldn't even be funny. He'll probably, however, wind up in prison, having to deal with some of the worst things imiginable.

[joshcryer]

40. You're giving the kid (and most script kiddies) too much credit.

They don't develop, the developers are the 'criminals.' But you're not going to catch the developers, because they're not fools. And the developers don't care about some script kiddies getting jail time. In fact, I would reckon that if you pushed up the jail time for individuals who use tools rather than write them, all you're going to do is make it worse. To the developers, it'll become increasingly funny. They'll still be free to reek havok, because, again, they're not stupid (and keeping your ass covered is so laughably easy), and they'll get to watch idiots go to jail for playing copycat.

The solution here isn't creating some police state where we lock everyone up who fucks with some code; people who were a little too curious for us. The solution is to make systems not be vunerable. Yes. It's possible.

[teknomanzer]

35. well said...

I'm no computer tech, and I can fix my system. Computers are tools; a person that uses the tool should know a litle something about it.

And yes the guy should have to face the music, but he should not have to serve more time than a rapist for it.

[Occulus]

54. couple points

First, these machines are too complicated for responsible use without reading fully both the provided documentation or by going online and finding out about basic computer information for newbies. RTFM.

Second, one does not need to be a certified tech to make their systems secure from threat. There are simple procedures (such as not opening any except expected and known attatchments, for example) and practices, as well as specific hardware, that one can use to protect one's computers from these things, as well asdetect when they are under attack. If one isn't willing to do at least that, well, either don't buy or use a computer or fork over the cash without complaint. Here's an idea: if this happens again, go to a library and learn how to fix it yourself. You'll save money and learn something useful in the process.

Third, I'll agree completely- the learning curve for linux is indeed steep. There are distributions, such as RedHat, that are constantly working to achieve that very goal.

Take a look at knoppix if you like- it runs directly from the CD (just tell your computer to boot first from the CD), and doesn't install anything at all. That would be a perfect way to learn linux without touching your hard drive. Oh, it can also read from your windows drive, so you can sample how those files you use most are supported. You can't screw up anything; it loads and runs in RAM.

the problem is, nobody seems to ever want to learn anything, and that's a shame.

[LeftHander]

29. 6 months probation and community service is good enough

Like playing with matches, sometimes things get out of control...frankly I could give a shit. This serves Microsoft right and all those who BUY products FROM A CONVICTED MONOPOLY right for continuing to SUPPORT the crap MS produces and it's unfair ILLEGAL practices...

I say show a little mercy to a otherwise decent kid.

And quit giving your money to microsoft for the shitty software that is full of goddamn holes...

THose of you who call for his death make me PUKE!!

[chenGOD]

32. I just would like to note that...

I have never given my money to MS. :evilgrin: :evilgrin:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

33. See post 27 by chenGOD and post 30 by me

What you call "mercy", we call "proper punishment".

About people who call for extreme, excessive punishment for a particular offense, I understand that as a particularly nasty manifestation of selfishness. No, wait, it makes sense. Follow me:

Suppose I live in a neighborhood which has very little street crime. Being mugged or shot or raped or having someone break into my house and take away my stereo are very unlikely events, and I perceive them as such.

Now, there are other transgressions which I percieve may hurt ME. Losing the data in my computer may cause me a lot of grief, and I (correctly) perceive it as more likely to hit me.

Now I'm mad. I want to punish these particular offenders as hard as possible, nay, harder than possible. Because they're a danger to ME. 10 years? Too little. 20 years? Too little. Life and a $20,000,000 fine? Too little. Death for him and slavery for every relative up to the 8th degree? Starting to get better, add some torture and I think I'll be satisfied then.

What about those other, more serious crimes, the ones who have now lesser punishments but are less likely to hit me? (shrug) Whatever, THAT doesn't affect ME.

You may watch that kind of logic in action in the lobby media companies make for absurd restrictions and even more absurd punishments for copyright violation. Punishment for copyright violation in the USA now carries heavier penalties than many violent crimes.

Absurd? Yes, but remember: ME, ME, ME!

[Bake]

62. Playing with matches? Got out of control??

C'mon! This little sh*t was smart enough to "hex edit" (whatever the hell that is) the damn thing. He is obviously smart enough to know that there have been other viruses/worms in the not-too-distant past that have spread like frickin' wildfire. He's obviously pretty conputer literate. And you wnat me to believe the little dear just didn't know what he was doing???

BULLSHIT!! I've been around 15-18 year-olds in my community who were simply vandals. They think it's "cool" or "funny." My own property has been vandalized, and I didn't think it was very f'ing funny!

We have three computers. Two of 'em got the worm so bad the patch had to be run several times, and our ISP cut us off for a few days (!) because their own techs couldn't figure out how to get rid of the motherfucker! My wife missed almost a week of her online classes because of this, and that put her WAAAY behind! How many millions of times over was this story repeated around the country and around the world? I think it's a bit more than just a harmless prank that got out of hand!

Bottom line, this little turd needs to do time over this. Death penalty? Crap no! But he needs to do time, and I hope he does time and meets Bubba while he's in there.

And talk about blaming the victim! "YOu should've been using Linux." You know what? Most of us aren't computer geeks. We use computers for what they can do for us--not so we can learn programming languages etc.

Just my $0.02.

Bake

[Rowdyboy]

36. Obviously the concept of personal responsibility....

is seen as an irrelevent relic by many on the left. Sorry I can't join you. He cost thousands of people financial loss and should pay a stiff price. Other hackers are watching-I see nothing wrong with sending a strong message that breaking and entering computers, damaging them and essentially stealing from the owners is totally unacceptable.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

37. How stiff is too stiff?

Inquiring minds want to know.

And don't give me that "hackers-are-watching-we-have-to-send-a-strong-message" logic. Punishment should fit the gravity of the offense, not how much the press gets interested in it.

[Rowdyboy]

42. The gravity of the offense...Well lets see...

Starting in my house, a simple breaking and entering and destruction of private property charge will suffice. Multiply that times the number of individual home computers affected. Of course, many of those them were small business people who run their operations over their computers. Their economic losses should be considered too. Loss of income which basically takes food from their families. Businesses were forced to close in some cases-loss of income by the store and employees.

I agree, punishment should fit the gravity of the crime. 5 years, and then parole with no computer access for 15 years would satisfy the gravity of this crime. Hard as it may be to understand, this is not a cute prank, its not a harmless joke. He is an intelligent adult who made a very bad choice that harmed a lot of innocent people..

That you don't agree with my logic doesn't surprise me. Believe me, you are NOT alone. We'll just have to disagree.

[demdave]

43. Sometime penalties can be a deterent for others....

People are watching this and will realize that it is serious if the man gets slapped with a hefty fine and jail time. How long? I would sentence him to 3 yrs and shock parole him after 12-18 months. This can all happen in county jail I would think.


As for your "Punishment should fit the gravity of the offense" comment, I don't think you really mean that. This caused massive problems and lost money. I do not think this guy should have quite that large of a millstone hung around his neck. After all, I agree, he is stupid. As was stated earlier, he didn't even take very simple steps to keep from getting caught.


Scare him and any other fool away from dangerous hobbies like this is what is needed and I think the sentence I described above would accomplish that.

[chenGOD]

56. Actually what caused massive problems...

was not some kid editing a piece of software that he didn't write. It was the fact that Microsoft has had this particular exploit in their OS for at least oh...I dunno 3 years (since Windows2000 was released basically). The U.S. government has turned a blind eye to Microsoft's monopolistic practices, and continue to do so.

If the car company that had a 90% market share had a serious flaw that caused it to crash when it encountered certain conditions (unless properly looked after), would people accept that? Not a chance.

Well a computer is a machine, and when it encounters certain conditions, unless it's properly looked after, it will crash.


Look the kid did wrong. But sending him to prison is only going to embitter him against society in general, and enable him to make contacts in criminal circles that he might not have made otherwise.

No computer for 2-5 years, counseling and community service (somewhere in the vicinity of 500 hours should be more than sufficient) would be appropiate for a first time offender.

[demdave]

57. Like a car with a non locking gas cap....and I just want to pour sugar in

I see your analogy now. I shouldn't be held responsible because you were too naive to buy a locking gas cap. You probably also have no problem with me prowling the neighborhood late at night, just to make sure nobody forgot to lock their windows and doors. Right? Sarcasm off

[chenGOD]

58. Remember what I said about taking proper care of things?

So if I took proper care of my tools, like buying a locking gas cap, or applying a security patch that was available a few months before, then we wouldn't have the problem?

Remember this is a car that has a >90% market share, and it comes with lots of problems (like a non-locking gas cap).


Did I say we shouldn't punish the kid? No. I said we should, but make the punishment fit the crime. Jail time is not the answer in this case. The prisons in America are already overcrowded due to stupid drug laws. You don't need to add to the largest prison population in the world with stupid computer laws.

[joshcryer]

61. More like a car that, whenever it gets honked at, leaks gas.

If you go around specifically targeting these cars and honking at them to get them to leak gas, you're a bad guy, certainly (it's about criminal intent, right?), but the question is whether such a stupid flaw should have existed in the first place.

Your position would decree that such flaws are okay, and it's totally the criminals responsiblity. Well, it's not.

[flavorself]

47. disgusting attitude

I think that the attitudes of most of you people are absolutely disgusting. You want to send an 18 year old boy to prison, or worst, for modifying a piece of computer code. One of biggest problems with Americans is that you always want to blame someone, you always want to punish someone else for your own shortcomings. Why don't you try to learn something about the tools that you use, your computers, so that you don't need to worry about about this in the future?


Anyway, why are you so incensed? A computer is just a piece of electronics and software, and if it is vital to your existence then perhaps you should take more care of it.

Personally, I think that people who write virus'/worms, etc, do us all a favour by ensuring that we examine in more detail how our computer systems work. This helps us to understand them and consequently make better use of them. Perhaps you should all write the boy a letter, thanking him for his help in furthering your computer education.

Perhaps, if we wish to use this boy's actions for the public good, then it should be explained to him about the possible consequences of his actions, with specific examples, so that he fully understands why he should consider others before embarking on any more adventures. Then you could send him on a tour where he can explain the concept to others who might be tempted.

[demdave]

48. Flame troll

move along

[SheepyMcSheepster]

59. Here here!

I agree completely. people are so quick place blame on this kid like he is some evil mastermind hell bent on causing problems. he is just a dumb foolish kid. this is a good wake up call to those of you who take your computers for granted. It is my opinion that at least some of the blame lays on the shoulders of the computer users and the company that releases the software these computere users are using. If you high and mighty users had patched your computers, then your computer would not have been used as an 'accessory' to proliferate this worm. so it could easily be said that those who were neglegent in providing the proper updates to their systems are partly responsible for effectiveness of this worm/exploit. sure tack a hefty sentence on the boy, but don't forget who helped the worm actually become a problem........... uninformed and neglegent users.

[Bake]

63. Gee thanks Sheepy.

Your post sounds just like that character on SNL: "Your Company's Computer Guy."

Wow. Instead of prison, let's give this kid a MEDAL!

Let's see. Norton's Firewall couldn't stop it. NAV couldn't find it OR fix it. But it's MY fault for not running a patch that I didn't even know I needed until I got the damn virus in the first place??? Sorry, that dog won't hunt.

Bake

[SheepyMcSheepster]

64. lol

sorry to come of that way, but it is the truth. i just get tired of everyone wanting to string this kid up by the balls because 'he' cost them them so much money by what 'he' did to 'their' computers. 'he' did not act alone in this. the 'he' should be all of us + microsoft + the kid. it could have been much worse (like scrabling your harddrive) and this is a good wake up call for all of us that take this whole computer thing for granted. It is your duty to be informed. when you surf the net uniformed you surf with communism (that is a joke by the way) ha ha :-) .

[Bake]

65. I blame (1) the "kid" and (2) Microsoft

It's not like Microsoft didn't KNOW their crappy software was vulnerable as a piece of swiss cheese (perhaps that's a mixed metaphor). But they just keep on ringing up those profits and screwing the consumer. KA-CHING!

Bake

[chenGOD]

69. Actually....

I run Zone Alarm free, and it stopped the virus on the one computer that I didn't patch.

The patch was available before the virus came about. There's Windows Update...which is in the start menu. You can set it to be automatic. YOu take care of your other tools yes? Then why not take care of your computer?

[joshcryer]

60. Good post. :)

Well said. Worms that go about causing unheard of bandwidth losses shouldn't be possible in the first place. If it takes 'criminals' making these worms for us to see the obvious holes and fix them, then oh well.

[sam sarrha]

67. the sympathy trip is a lawyer trick. what is going on with his family,

why is this guy so good to make a variance of a virus...where did he get the info..? if I ever get busted for Mayhem i hope my lawyer can pull off the lonely quiet bearded guy the lives in a a 12x14 shack in Idaho and rides a bike to town once a month to buy wire, nails and dynamite.:tinfoilhat: :nuke:

[chenGOD]

68. You can get the info anywhere on the internet.

If you would look at my posts, you'd see what I consider to be an appropiate punishment.

No sympathy for the kid, 500 hours of community is no joke. Plus 2 years without a computer for a kid like this. Then counseling.

Hopefully this wll wake people up to the lack of security in Microsoft's products. I use Windows, but since I was running a firewall (a free one, that DID stop the virus). I didn't get infected, and then I installed the patch.

[not systems]

70. Separate a bunch of dems from their computer

and they turn into the Taliban.

First of this little punk wasted about 4 hours
of my time writing filters to deepsix his cruft.

Second he deserves -- a community service sentence.

Fixing up computer for poor kids and old folks,
no lashes, no anal rape in the big house.

The real problem as some have noted is Microsoft's
creation of a software mono-culture.

Yes, armys of people including maybe you get your
"window" on the tech world from Bill and think of him
as a friendly uncle but he is a monopolist.

Sure I sympathise with the techno-peasants of the
world but really wake up, using Microsoft for all
you needs is like shopping at Wallmart. It kills
diversity in the software gene pool and a hetrogenous
population is ripe for epidemic. Like the death of
economic diversity in small towns where Wallmart has
killed all local retail - you want a burger with that?

Face it Microsoft writes crap software that they
can't secure year after year. They are to blame.
The kid who creates these things are just litle robots
acting out a role they have about as much choice
as the deer that run in front of a car causing a
crash. Put the blame where it belongs with the
poor software sold by Microsoft.